Stereotype Me
by stakeh
Summary: AU. Gaara's finally breaking into his teenage years, naïve as he is. With a little guidance from his new friends, Gaara will learn how to French, cry, sing, and maybe even pick up his own label along the way. School fic. Pairings pending. Discontinued.
1. They're Popping Up Like Diseases

**Stereotype Me**  
_(my try two)_

_Notes: I am simply going to ignore the fact that I now have three stories going. Here goes another shot at this. No own of anything._

One – They're Popping Up Like Diseases

—

Gaara shifted uncomfortably, the many stares weighing him down like an extra shirt probably would. The room was extremely too tense for him, but he pushed away anxiety as the teacher began to tally off names, mentally tagging new faces, and noting the old. Gaara himself was a new face; this school was yet another to be put under the growing list. His parents like to move around a lot, though quickly he added that none of it was his mother's fault; she just wanted to get use to one place, but up his father went to a whole new town.

A boy next to him slid a note over. Gaara hesitantly picked it up, his pale hand slipping under a maroon sleeve when he set the note down open in his lap. In bold, spidery writing, it read: **wat's ur name, nu kid?**

At least the failing boy beside him knew where to place comas in sentences. Taking pride in perfect grammar, Gaara looked over the bad use of spelling and wrote an answer swiftly back, just as his name was called from the attendance sheet. He was a new face, after all.

"Gaara? Gaara Sabaku?"

He nodded and weakly raised his hand. The teacher nodded in return and bent back over the sheet of names, completely ignoring the fact that many students had grown quite restless, and had begun to pass notes back and forth, such as he was doing now. Absently, he scanned the boy beside him choice of clothing; having gotten a lecture this morning from his sister about the very strict was some kids dealt with out-of-place peers. The boy, whom he only now realized he had been calling by such a name, liked the color blue. He wore blue jeans with several rips in the knee, a sky blue shirt, a long-sleeved blue shirt beneath that, and a navy blue hat twisted backward.

Another thing, which Gaara made a point to stare at, was The Boy's nails. They were neon blue. Yes, Gaara stared. That is, until said nails disappeared into the pockets of the ripped jeans.

Plus, The Boy's eyes were a very pretty blue; Gaara couldn't help but notice when they blinked over at him, the note now on his desk again. He unfolded it. **gaara? awsome.**

**And you? **he answered, not being able to help the fact that he found this kid very interesting. At his last school they had uniforms; Gaara'd always lose his, too, having to end up begging his older sister for a new pair of pants, or a new school t-shirt. The note was thrown at him this time, and fluttered to the ground. Gaara leant to get it; it wasn't too far off, just over by his left shoe, but was halted when an unknown appendage that definitely wasn't his own grasped the note and straightened back up, eyes reading the contents of the ruled paper.

And, in the blink of a black-lined eye, the new mysterious person stuck it in their mouth, and swallowed. The Boy beside him was about to throw himself this time, anger radiating off him in waves. "Bas_tard_! I was trying to have a civilized conversation!"

The paper-eating boy just smirked. This was the last grade of middle school anyway; the eighth graders had the power, especially if they were older than everyone else, which this Paper-Eater seemed to be. He was tall, even sitting, with—well, Gaara couldn't think of anything else to call it—a black overshadow around him.

Really. The list went on, colors and all. Black hair, black eyeliner, black eyes, black shirt, black _under_shirt, black jeans, black shoes, black socks (Gaara bet, even if he couldn't see them completely), black bracelets, even, black nails (and again, it was going to take him a while for him to get use to the nails…), black earring, black necklace, black rings, black soul, probably.

Gaara arched an eyebrow as The Boy attempted to hit the Paper-Eater, but only ended up drawing the teacher's eyes away from the attendance, and earning a sharp order to control himself.

All in all, Gaara really liked his new school.

—

During lunch, The Blue Boy (for Gaara still hadn't figured out his name; it was probably being digested at the moment) sat with him, jabbering away subject, after subject, before pulling out an mp3 player. It shut him up, to say the least. Gaara glanced over his shoulder to see what song he was listening to. The little screen showed The Birthday Massacre, with the words 'Lovers End' just below. A little strange for this bubbly character, he thought to himself.

He plucked an earphone from the boy's ear and inserted it into his own, wanting to hear what exactly this boy called music. The Birthday Massacre, in all its wonderfully diverse moments filled his ear, and Gaara felt a smirk tug at his lips. It sounded like something that other kid back in first hour would listen to.

When the song reached its end, with lovers or without, the boy changed it, not really minding that Gaara was listening in, to a completely different song, which just completely clashed with The Birthday Massacre-ness. It was Death Cab for Cutie's, 'Marching Bands of Manhattan.'

Odd. That was all he could really register.

Someone took the seat in front of the two sharing music, and gave them a look before biting into their pizza. Gaara looked up into pale eyes, and realized he was looking at a full-fledged transvestite, just probably without the cross-dressing part. Gaara blinked and put down the earpiece, giving his full attention to the new arrival. Dark brown hair hung over broad shoulders and an almost porcelain face glared back at him.

Gaara stuck his hand forth, hoping to get on good terms with at least a few people. When the boy/girl didn't take the offered peace treaty, he withdrew it and went back to staring. After another long minute, the Blue Boy put away his music and grinned brightly over at the Transvestite. Funny, Gaara had met now three people, yet in his mind they had ridiculous nicknames already, at the lack of a real one.

"Wazzup!" Blue Boy shouted over at his friend, blonde hair askew under that perfectly matching navy hat. At the same moment, one of the teachers within the area walked over and ripped it off his head.

"Naruto, you know hats are against dress code. You should know better," the woman chastised, and Gaara noticed her as the same woman who pointed out that his sleeves were too long. It's the dress code policewoman, he believed.

So now Blue Boy had officially been replaced with the proper name Naruto. Maybe Gaara'd eventually tell him about the nickname he had been given for a total of three hours. Gaara closed his eyes and breathed deeply; a headache from the new surroundings was starting to take over. Naruto didn't notice the change in his mood, but Transvestite did, though remained perfectly passive and watchful. Naruto grinned again at Dress Code Policewoman, before she turned and walked off, having returned the hat which, once her business suit back was turned, he shoved back onto his head, and twisted to face the opposite direction again.

"As I was saying," the blue-eyed boy said slowly, spinning in his seat to face Transvestite, before reaching over and grabbing a long tendril of hair, and yanking. "Weren't ya gonna cut this? Liar! Oh, what, cat got your tongue? I'm the cat-lover here, Neji," he added innocently, bending to dig around in his backpack immediately afterward. Gaara watched him curiously search, while the Trans—Neji sighed knowingly.

Since the three had the last lunch, Gaara concluded in his head, they had to carry all their junk—excuse me, backpacks—to lunch and all the way to their next class. Therefore, they had everything under their seats. Naruto returned from the depths of his backpack with what looked like a Sharpie marker, grinning the same idiotic grin he liked to give people when they got around him. Then, he turned first to the girl on his right, then to the girl on Gaara's left, asking all the while if they had a makeup mirror. Both looked at him like the plague had grasped yet another victim, before the second girl on Gaara's left sighed much like Neji had, and handed a compact pink one over. Naruto thanked her animatedly.

Then he proceeded to force Neji to hold the mirror in front of him, uncapped the permanent marker, and draw…lines on his face. When the job was finished, he capped the Sharpie, pocketed it, and grinned, of course. Realization dawned on Gaara when the blonde turned to him; the lines were meant to be whiskers. He guessed the boy wasn't lying about being a cat-lover. Naruto returned the mirror, then slyly ripped the crust off Neji's pizza slice and nibbled at it, the whiskers definitely making him resemble a blonde cat. Could cats even be considered blondes or brunettes? Neji, in return, scowled a very unhappy scowl, and was about to say something (as Gaara now noticed he hadn't said a word), when a voice interrupted. "Screw up your bloodstream, why don't you." The Paper-Eater with the black soul took a seat beside Neji's still glaring self.

"Pfft, like you don't," the blonde retorted, indicating the lyrics decorating pretty skin hidden under about twenty black bracelets. Gaara, intrigued, reached over and flipped the boy's arm over on the table, squinting to read the barely legible writing. It took him a moment to realize that the words were upside down.

"Yo, Gaara, this bastard's name is Sasuke, and just so you know, he looks like he's about to kill…" Naruto voice announced.

Well, Gaara was at least happy to have a name to now call Paper-Eater. Though a little unnerved on how all the attention from the three other's had been suddenly turned to him. Gaara, on the spur-of-the-moment type of thing, tried to twist Sasuke's arm around and read the lyrics. The fourteen-year-old hissed, annoyed. The words wrapped around his arm like a spiral weaving its way downward, reaching practically to his elbow. It hadn't been there that morning; when had he done it? Sometime between first hour and lunch? More than likely.

**See the animal in his cage that you built****  
****Are you sure what side you're on?****  
****Better not look him too closely in the eye****  
****Are you sure what side of the glass you are on?****  
****See the safety of the life you have built****  
****Everything where it belongs****  
****Feel the hollowness inside of your heart****  
****And it's all****  
****Right where it belongs**

A strange sense of recognition fluttered in the back of his mind uncertainly, but he looked up as though to question his thoughts.

"Nine Inch Nails."

Ah. Now he knew; Trent was actually a pretty good musician, and most definitely unique.

"Yup," Naruto continued for Sasuke, "It's like his favorite band; the only thing he ever listens to. Me, on the other hand… I have a more 'open mind'."

_Yeah, Naruto, I know,_ Gaara thought to himself humorously. Neji rose from his seat and hoisted his backpack onto his shoulder.

"I'm glad we could all become acquainted, but unfortunately the teachers are staring at us because, unfortunately, lunch ended three minutes ago." Gaara flushed with embarrassment and stood up a little too quickly, grabbing his bag and heading to the nearest door, even if it was in truth the farthest away from his next class.

Sasuke 'tsked' and closed his eyes, taking his time in gathering all his stuff together before leaving through a different door. Naruto glared over at Neji, but instead broke out into the quickly growing infamous grin.

"Great. You scared 'im."

—

"Shit!"

The curse pierced a very quiet atmosphere, causing a few to jump practically out of their skin, while others just groaned and shoved iPod earpieces into their ears farther, turning up random songs higher, even if they couldn't break the max volume anymore anyway. Gaara feared that if the headphones were continuously shoved in deeper, they might just never resurface. A sort of disturbing thought there.

The last class of the day had ended with bordering a million yawns from students. The teacher was probably deaf to them by now; the last class always was the slowest.

"Excuse me, but God called. He wants His Satan stunt-double back."

It wasn't unnatural, Gaara had come to note, for comments such as this to be passed around the room, to friends even. The redhead had once witnessed an exchange between two girls that confused him. One walked by the other, heading to their seat, when she hissed _'Ugly bitch' _and the other returned an _'I'm seeing double, then'_.But after another second they were back to laughing, chatting, and passing notes. Maybe Gaara'd give God a call back and ask him why life was messing with him.

This school was, simply, as crazy as what he guessed a clown school would be like, minus huge shoes and bee-bitten noses. It unnerved him to no end. _Bus, get here already! _The intercom, at that precise moment, screeched to life and began listing several numbers; one being what Gaara had been waiting to hear. Thankfully, it had only been fifteen minutes after dismissal, so he didn't think it was too late. If this were how late it usually was, for Gaara didn't know the school system too well, then he'd have to write the principle a letter, now wouldn't he?

On the bus Gaara took a seat in the moderate middle, not really worried that someone was going to come and kick him farther up or farther back (sometimes the popular kids liked the front; he had no idea why). He pulled out a CD player, iPods, or even an mp3 player being on his wish list, and scanned through the mix CD, searching for a particular song.

_Woke up this morning without a face  
I've fooled myself again  
__I've sold myself again  
__Another wasted day counting shades of gray—_

Before the song could continue any closer to the extremely catchy chorus, someone plopped into the seat beside Gaara and began to blabber.

"Hi! New face, new face! What's your name? I'm Sakura. Sakura Haruno, for that matter. Did you know that my mom named me after my great aunt? Did you know that Sakura Haruno the first was something along the lines of the Queen of Sheba? You have cool eyes. Ohmigosh! What are you listening to! Can I listen? Please? I promise it'll only be a minute. Pleeease—"

_Pick my teeth out of the mud  
and sink the sun, what have you done?  
Cut the bandages;  
Remove the oxygen  
Hey man what's with that stupid grin?_

"—Ya know? He's so adorable! Eee! I could just—…Anyways, I'm in eighth grade. I think you are too, but you're uber short, you know that? That's okay! So is my mom! She's like…Italian short. Whoa! I love your hair! It took me forever to bribe my mom to let me dye my hair neon pink. Like it? I do!"

_I cut and bleed myself along  
A man alone can do no wrong  
Another wasted day counting shades of gray  
Another fool's attempt to fall from grace_

"You look really, really confused!"

—_Cut off all loose ties, and bleed for days  
Who could stand veins with friends like these?  
Old man loneliness is a son of a bitch  
Both hands bound, can't scratch the itch  
Cut off all loose ties, and bleed for days  
Who could stand veins with friends like these?_

"—and so I—"

Gaara, completely confused as the _very_ talkative girl had pointed out before the chorus rang through his ears, pulled his headphones down around his neck and gave her a bewildered look. "What?"

"Oh! Hi!"

He groaned and leaned back against the seat. This was going to be a long ride.

—

At home, he swiftly glanced around, smiled at an empty house cheerfully, and half-threw, half-set his backpack on the couch, before leaping towards his room. Homework could wait; e-mail was way more important. Maybe he had gotten some comments on that recent post. Gaara had an xanga, was there a problem with that? His sister and brother had them. Hell, he wouldn't have been surprised if his mom did. She was cool like that.

As he logged on onto Yahoo, the phone rang to life, and he bent backwards in his computer chair to grasp it, before holding it to his ear. "Hello, Sabaku residence, Gaara speaking, how may I help you?"

His mother had taught him to be polite.

A cheerful, motherly voice answered, which he raised an eyebrow at, obviously to no one since no one was there to see it. His mother began to rant about her first day at work at the Hospital she had been signing up for, and then asked just as sweetly how her son's day had been. Like every normal teenager—

"Fine."

And so on. Eventually she let him go, and he breezed by a total of twenty-two new e-mails, and then rose to get a piece of bread into his stomach. Sure he hadn't had lunch, but Gaara wasn't the hungry type of person. He wasn't anorexic; he just never craved food when denied it for a long period of time. It was like his stomach had been shut off from food of any kind.

Leaning against the counter in the kitchen by a spotless refrigerator reflected on a spotless linoleum floor, Gaara looked up as the front door was opened, and his high school brother and sister stepped through. Kankuro didn't look over at him while he stripped his jacket off, and dove at the couch, moaning and whining about horrible teachers and mountains of laughing essays while pushing Gaara's backpack to the clean white carpet. Temari walked over to her younger brother and chastely kissed him on the forehead, saying a little hi.

Home was so peaceful without Dad here, Gaara realized.

As his blonde older sister got to work cooking macaroni and cheese, and Kankuro pretended he didn't have homework, Gaara sat at the table and began to list important stuff that had happened throughout the day. Temari had always made it a rule that he spill every event that had happened to him at school, good and bad; past experiences were the cause of this.

"So what are your new friend's names?"

Gaara had to stop himself from saying Paper-Eater, Blue Boy, or Transvestite. That would have been a funny site, at the least; Temari looking completely shocked that someone's mother would name their child something so strange. That or Gaara just had a wild imagination, which was probably the case.

"Uh… Naruto, Neji, and Sasuke."

"Any last names?" she said with a hidden smirk.

"Why? So you can call their families? Hell no."

Temari turned around with a fake-hurt look. "Such accusations."

"Whatever. Anyway, I don't know their last names…I don't think… Yeah. I'm drawin' a blank. Oh, there was also a chick named Sakura, but I seriously hope she gets plastic surgery and looses the ability to move her jaw," the redhead finished wistfully.

"Now that's not a very nice thing."

Kankuro rolled over and muttered something along the lines of, 'Just shoot me, God. Please. You created life, you can end it…goddammit…'

—

End One – They're Popping Up Like Diseases

_End Notes: I got the title idea from the fact that new people really do pop up like diseases… The Birthday Massacre 'Lovers End', Death Cab for Cutie 'Marching Bands of Manhattan', Nine Inch Nails 'Right Where it Belongs', Finch 'A Man Alone'. I own nothing, still. Can't gain it overnight._

_Revision Notes: YES. I finally got it done! Cheer! All inspiration is dedicated to Panic! At the Music, for some reason, 'cause their music gave me an urge to write this. Can't explain why… So, do tell me if this is an improvement of Life in the Labels, or not, please. _

_Warning: Updating may be slow. Two other stories going._


	2. When It Rains I Hope It Pours

**Stereotype Me**

_Note__: Thank you all for taking the time to read this. Also, I saw a number of errors in the last chapter that I did grit my teeth over, such as the fact that it's Panic! At the Disco, not At the Music… Wonder where that came from._

Two — When It Rains I Hope It Pours

—

Today, Gaara decided that he didn't like Gym at all. It made you sweaty, and forced you to reveal a fourth of your body at the least. Naruto didn't mind it though; Gaara had a lingering suspicion it was because the Gym uniform was blue. Now personally, Gaara liked to hide his body for reasons that have not been fully investigated yet, so the shorts did not do well to help that. The redhead, for the fiftieth time that normal teenage day, tugged at his shorts till they were just-barely-clinging to his hips, and pulled his shirt just a tad lower over his stomach.

Sasuke was in their Gym class, but today, just like yesterday, he had said that 'Oh I don't have my uniform, teacher' and was sitting on the bleachers off to the left, sneaking his iPod into his ear to intensify his luxurious break that Gaara'd kill for right about now.

Meanwhile, Naruto threw a basketball out of the blue that bounced off Gaara's head with a resounding echo. A random kid with brown hair made the effort to stop, look over, see the scene, tell everyone within a twenty-inch radius, and bend over in intense laughter. Gaara choked on the carbon dioxide he had once been ready to release, and reached down for the ball, passing it back over to Naruto with an extra-hard shove.

As the coach blew like hell was freezing over into the whistle, Gaara flinched and followed everyone else that had begun to form a circle around the coach. A few boys sniggered behind their hands as the coach set a very interest-inducing book on the chair behind him. "All right pansies. Today we're gonna play golf. Any problems there?"

Many voices rose in protest, and Naruto looked like he was about to stalk over and rip the Coach's jugular vein out for display. "Oh hell no! My frickin' grandpa plays golf!"

The coach smirked and began to order one of the students to go get out the golf clubs and golf balls. Naruto, for a moment, began to laugh muttering 'Ha…ha… He's not serious', but when the three students returned with the clubs, plus a mighty big bag of golf balls, his cerulean eyes widened in shock. "B-but w-wait! We can't golf inside!"

The older man leveled his gaze unflinchingly. "Who said anything about staying inside?" he answered with a malicious glint in his dark eyes. Naruto swallowed visibly.

"Uh, sir, it's raining—"

"Silence!"

A snicker could be heard somewhere off by the bleachers. Sasuke cranked his music up higher.

And so Gym continued, golf clubs being whacked over people's precious craniums, rain streaking down everyone and everything, and the field sporting a few new holes.

**Forty Minutes Later**

Gaara also had a problem with changing in front of a bunch of guys. He was sure a lot of other people did too; it wasn't natural to not care, right? Even Naruto had the decency to leave his boxers on when he changed. The redhead was glad that the building was pretty new, for if it wasn't, taking a shower here would have sickened him to no end. Now that the shower stalls were at least clean, it wasn't as bad, but still.

On the way out, Gaara noticed that they still had ten minutes before the bell rang, and glanced around for the only two people he really knew, only to find Sasuke still on the bleachers, and Naruto nowhere in sight. Shrugging, he made his way over to the Walking Dead teenager, and sat down somewhat next to him, deciding to approach this neutrally.

"So, um…where's Naruto?"

After a moment of silence from the other end, Gaara turned and realized Sasuke was still listening to his music and had not noticed him at all. Deciding it was much safer to just drop the try at small talk,he watched as students began to pour out of the locker room and sit along the bleachers, talking about how much they walked to sue whoever invented golf. Maybe even murder. Although really, golf wasn't necessarily a sport now was it? All you did was hit a little white ball around with a metal stick.

So now Gaara was sitting, bored, watching Sasuke completely ignore him with his damn music… Oh wait, didn't he have music? Crap. It was in his locker. Why did he put it there! Stupid, stupid. At that moment, a ball of energized blue-ness bounced over and seated itself beside him, grinning.

"Yo! Why ya with Ice Queen? She don' like men," Naruto said jokingly.

It seemed Sasuke heard this one, for two black eyes blinked curiously (or dangerously) over at him. They were half-narrowed, like while everyone else had busted their butts trying to get the ball in the damn hole he had been daydreaming lazily. Gaara seriously wished he had the nerve to defy the rules like 'Ice Queen', or Paper-Eater as Gaara had become more accustomed too. Had Naruto first thought of Sasuke as 'Ice Queen' or did that crazy habit belong solely to himself?

The Coach shouted at them after that to 'Get the hell out of my gym', so they grabbed all their stuff and high-tailed it to their next class, which, unfortunately, was another obstacle before lunch.

—

In English, the class just after lunch, Gaara was left in the company of Neji Hyuuga (which had turned out to be his full name). The redhead glanced over at the otherwise mute boy, not helping but to wonder what his voice sounded like in class. Sure he knew what it sounded like in the hallways, but not in class. Was there a difference? Sure there was.

Neji caught him staring once and gave him a glare that had Gaara wishing the bell would ring to dismiss, even if class had begun a total of ten minutes ago. The teacher, a young man with brown hair tied back in a ponytail, announced that because it was the second day of school, they could have a break and enjoy a bit of free time. Immediately, kids squealed and blew kisses to their beloved English teacher, before turning, forgetting, and chatting about the latest gossip.

But great. Now Gaara was stuck with an anti-social, mute Transvestite for another, what, forty-five minutes?

Neji seemed to have something else in mind, for he pulled out a book, flipped it open, and began to read, completely ignoring Gaara. The redhead sighed and decided maybe he should finish his math homework, since it was his next class after all.

Obviously Peace didn't like Gaara very much, because the seat beside him (that this kid sat in… He didn't know whom) was vacated in favor of a pink-sporting blabbermouth. Oh gods.

"Hi!" she chirped. "'Member me? I remember you! Watcha doin'? Homework? Ugh! I hate homework! It's like so horrible! Did you know that once in seventh grade my science teacher gave us two projects in one week! It was evil! And—"

Gaara, for all his sanity was worth, turned to the poor, sweet, innocent excuse of a teenage girl and opened his jaw to mutter words that would surely show her how painful her jabbering was to his ears when, against all odds, another girl strode over and plopped her skinny little backside on top of his desk and grinned a wide grin. "Ah! And who is this little boy? Are you sure you aren't supposed to be in sixth grade? You're really, really short. Are you like extremely smart and skipped a grade or two? That's frickin' awesome!"

Gaara groaned to himself and mentally slammed his head against a convenient yet imaginary brick wall. Maybe if he thought hard enough he would feel the pain…

Neji seemed to sense the trauma the redhead had been unexpectedly been put through, and drifted over noiselessly. "Look, girls, he obviously is annoyed by your constant talking. Just…go away, if you will. Thank you."

But instead of disappearing, Sakura and the other girl's smile grew in size and they squealed over at the Hyuuga. "Hi Neji! Do you know who I am! Of course you do!"

"No, actually I'm afraid I do not—"

"We love you Neji!"

Was Neji really that popular with the chicks? Another piece of information stored in the back of his mind for later examination. Neji just sighed. In the back of the Hyuuga's mind, he was wondering what sadistic bastard put him through the pain of English with the immature.

After a struggle between the male and female race, Sakura and the other girl wandered off reluctantly, and he was left to deal with what could be considered his savior in the next universe over. "Uh, thank you, I think…"

"Not use to the attention?" Neji asked smoothly, taking a seat beside the redhead.

"Not really… In my last school they had rulers. You talk, you bruise. It was kind of scary, really…" The green-eyed thirteen-year-old gave a little smile to himself rather than Neji, whose eyes looked more like they were watching than actually seeing.

He shrugged, hair today tied back in a black ribbon. "Get use to it. That's how it is here; trust me. I've known some of these people since kindergarten."

"Like who?" Gaara couldn't help but wonder.

"Naruto, for one."

That explained their awkward friendship. Naruto and Neji getting along felt a little strange, sort of like new shoes. Tipsy at first, then wonderfully comfortable. That is, if they were the right size.

Nodding in the absence of something to say, Gaara sighed and laid his head down on the desk. He was tired, simply. Last night mother had gotten home really late, and dad just…didn't come home. Gaara's father worked downtown, being a lawyer. He thought maybe Father had stayed after work to continue on an important case of some sort. …Maybe. To his right, Neji remained silent for the redhead's sake. He could already tell that the smaller boy dazed off quite a lot, and didn't bother interrupting his thoughts. Neji would have been irked if someone had done that to him. Oh, definitely.

And the class went by like that, with comfortable chatter circling around them. Gaara's focus eventually drifted to his new life here. It was somewhat calmer, and the tense people he was use to, back at the Catholic school, dissipated in favor of young ignorance and a friend's stupid jokes.

—

Sometimes Gaara wished his older siblings weren't both at a different school than him. Now was not one of those times, though.

"Ahoy! To the weekend we go!" Naruto hollered after Neji and Sasuke, whom had a twisted sort of smirk on their faces, like they were planning something that would surely stop people in their tracks.

Gaara stared dumbly as Neji, like he had practiced countless times, approached Sasuke, and Sasuke, with the same look as his partner, grabbed Neji's shoulders steadily and swung the other boy's legs upover his arm, grasping Neji under the knees. Then the Ice Queen began to _carry _the Hyuuga down the hallway.

"Whoo! Satan! Get out the pig's blood, we gots'a sacrifice!"

The redhead paled. Meanwhile, Naruto was doubling over in laughter beside him. "Take 'im to the alter!"

"Uh…" he began in shock.

"Oh ignore them, it's Friday! Cut us some slack!" Grinning still, the blonde boy tailed after them, forcing Gaara to have to nearly run to catch up to the trio. By now there were many spectators, all shaking their heads disapprovingly. Some were laughing, and, even more, cheering along with an unusually out-of-character Sasuke.

Neji (still being held up) and Sasuke made their way to one of the yellow buses lined up and roaring impatiently. Around them, the crowd parted like the red sea. Gaara waved goodbye to his three friends and boarded his own separate means of transportation, before sighing heavily as normal routine kicked into gear. After another minute the happy-go-lucky, even-if-the-world's-ending-tomorrow-I'll-still-smile, pink-haired girl sat next to him, chatting the ride away.

Gaara let his mind wander again anyway. He was use to ignoring her by now. Either her hair had been blonde before she dyed it, or she just didn't get a hint, she was still a human being, he guessed. Best to just act as though she were a stranger.

Gods, where had the week gone? It felt like yesterday that he was being signed in by his mother and handed a schedule. On Monday he had attacked the day one step at a time, yet now… Now he was looking at his weeks as a whole. Five days instead of just a single one. It was strange and uneasy but, well, he could get use to it.

At home, he was bombarded almost upon entry by a hyperactive blonde sister, and the first thing she did was drag him into the next room and throw three articles of clothing at his gaping face. Gaara peeled the shirt, pants and tie from his head and glanced them over, quickly muttering a "What-The-Hell?".

"It's mom's birthday! Don't tell me you forgot! Hurry up get ready, we're going to dinner!" she said cheerily.

Gaara's mouth hung open. "Shit! Shit, shit, shit! I forgot!"

She sighed shortly. "What'd I tell ya… Anyway, quick, get dressed, dammit! Don't worry about it. Just move it!" And then Temari was out the door humming, with sounds of Kankuro questioning the lack of slices of bread in the kitchen.

Later, in her car, Temari explained curtly, "Mom's gonna meet us there. Dad too. It's that new Chinese restaurant we spotted our first drive here, remember? Yeah. So just act cool, like you knew it was her birthday," her blue eyes momentarily narrowed on her brothers, before she continued, "and also, don't say anything to get dad upset. You know how he gets when he's spending money, mom's birthday or not."

They nodded quickly. Oh, they knew.

The restaurant turned out to be pretty fancy, with elegant, Chinese tables scattered around. Gaara scowled as he got down on his knees, but erased the unpleasant look when Mother smiled over at him from across the table. "Well isn't this a surprise. You're all dressed up!"

This time he jokingly made a face.

When Father got there, only about ten minutes overtime, he immediately poured a glass of sake, but graced his wonderful family with a half-smile anyway. These were his kids and his wife, so dignity must be kept.

Outside, rain began to lightly fall to the ground, very softly and an almost pleasant background sound. Partway through dinner Kankuro accidentally made a side comment questioning where father had gone last night. Almost as though an answering machine had turned on somewhere in the man's head, he breezed out, "The case went by longer than we expected. I had to stay late at the office."

Instantly remembering his place, Kankuro's gaze shifted to the floor. But they all were a little hesitant, if at the least Gaara and his brother. It had only been a few weeks since they moved; had he gotten a major case that early on? They must've really trusted him.

Mother just smiled and thanked him for buying dinner, and leaned over to peck him on the cheek. He didn't say anything, but Kankuro could've sworn he say a flash in his dark almond eyes. Or was he hallucinating? His father wasn't evil, right? He wouldn't do anything like walk out on them, right? Well, mother had a strong job going anyway; they could support themselves anyway. Kankuro found himself wishing his Dad would. Then maybe it'd be peaceful at home again, not tense and uptight.

They paid and left the little Chinese restaurant, happy and talking to their mother animatedly about their day, and so on. Out of the corner of his eye, Gaara noticed that his dad didn't try to participate in any conversation whatsoever, even if he had been asked endless strings of questions. He was like an emotionless statue.

At home Father disappeared into his room, and Mother worriedly followed. The rain had somewhat let up, but trickles of water still leaked from the heavens stubbornly. Kankuro vanished to his room with a large yawn thereafter, and Temari pounced at the computer immediately. Things began to slowly tone down.

Somewhere around nine, when the sun had set and Temari had gone to sleep, leaving the midnight website prowling to Kankuro, a fight broke out. Gaara considered cleaning out his ears; this never happened ever, right? Maybe Temari was screaming in her sleep. …Maybe not. And all at once, the door to his parent's room banged open, and an enraged, red in the face Sabaku man stepped through.

"I didn't ask for this!" he shouted.

"Well maybe you should have considered that, _before _you asked!" Mother uncharacteristically countered.

Kankuro jumped and signed off instantly, rising from the computer chair to try and calm the two. At least it was Friday. No school tomorrow to worry about.

But Gaara, meanwhile, was panicking. He wasn't use to this kind of pressure; never was, and probably never will be. Standing from his seat at the counter, he set his pencil and homework down, and stared over at Kankuro, silently begging his brother to point him in the right direction.

"Gaara…go—go to your room…o-or outside… Just don't… Goddammit…" was all Kankuro could get out before Father and Mother fell into another heated argument, this time causing Father to begin to make wild movements with his hands.

At first Gaara thought his father was just overtired, but then he realized that…that the sake at the restaurant was really strong and…and crap…didn't he have several glasses? Crap, crap, crap, crap… Gaara made for the hallway, then thought better of it since he dad suddenly revealed that he was holding a beer bottle, and turned to go out the front door.

Outside, with cold drizzle dripping down his face, Gaara almost forgot the raging madness happening just inside his front door, his home, his beloved mother's home. Outside the darkness swallowed up all his fears of a drunken father, and replaced an awkward sense of peace.

At the same moment, the rain became more intense, and began to fall like miniature bombs. In less than a minute Gaara was soaked from head-to-toe, obviously forgetting that he had chosen not to change out of his dress clothes when he had gotten home. The white shirt clung to his chest, but he ignored it and stood out by the cleanly cut and manicured lawn, sporting a few gnomes that taunted him with their…jolliness.

What felt like not a long time afterward, with Gaara still in a trance-like state, his sister ran outside and down the steps, immediately draping a coat over his head and around his unconsciously shivering body, before rushing him inside. "You could've gotten pneumonia!I can't believe it!"

"Tema—" he vaguely heard his brother start.

"—Why'd you go outside? I was worried sick and—"

"Temari—"

"Shut the hell up!"

Silence fell. Kankuro blinked, shocked, and Temari apologized hurriedly under her breath. "It's just…you know… and I come out here and see you but not Gaara… I was freaked…"

He nodded in mute understanding. Kankuro turned to the redhead. "They're okay now. I don't know what happened… I think Dad had too much alcohol, but I don't think that'll be happening anytime soon, so don't worry. Mom's asleep. You were out there for an hour, Gaara."

Really? He had? He didn't remember. And all of the sudden he felt himself beingdirected into the hallway, then set gently on his bed while he heard Temari mutter something about pajamas.

"Kankuro?" Gaara heard himself whisper.

"Yes?" the brunette answered, having to stop and come over before he could be sure he could hear his little brother's quiet, shaky voice.

"What time is it?"

"T-ten twenty, last time I checked. Y-yeah."

"Oh." Then Gaara leaned over on his side, his red hair wetting the pillow under it, barely being able to think anymore, falling into a half-awake daze, and slowly left the conscious world behind.

—

Two – When It Rains I Hope It Pours

_End Notes: Another chapter down the hole. Well, hope you liked it. Thank you for the feedback! More please! _

_Revision Notes: Unfortunately, you all tell me what love you had for Life in the Labels _after _it's deleted. (cries) Therefore, I'd have to repost it the same way and wait for more reviews. And unfortunately, I can't do that because I had hoped to have it behind me… Yeah, I'm very critical, but hey, that's what makes you improve, yes? Yes! YES! At least that's what I believe. _

An Afterthought for the Brain: I just realized I made Sakura the most annoying bug on the planet.


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